The cell phone and other mobile devices have become a fixture in the homes and the offices of most U.S. and many foreign consumers. As might be expected, the pursuit of consumers in this growing market has driven the providers of cellular telephones and other mobile devices to offer a continuing profusion of new products and features that are designed to differentiate each company's product from the others and to entice the consumer to buy a particular brand of hardware. Market dynamics have resulted in a steady evolution of cell phones from single purpose communication devices into multimedia hubs that enable the user to capture video sequences, take pictures, listen to radio, play games, view and hear multimedia files, etc. In addition to the near universal explosion of multimedia functionality most modem cell phones and mobile devices allow the user to run a variety of software applications on those devices. The range of available applications varies from email-management and word processing programs to game programs. Of course, the quality and functionality of the software that is available for mobile devices has increased with each successive hardware generation. This has been fuelled at least in part by the steady increase in processing power of the CPUs of these devices. This has led to an increased demand for software to run on these devices. Further the increasing interdependence between mobile phone and desktop PC (e.g., a user's main phone book may be maintained on a desktop PC but it will most often actually be needed while the user is trying to complete a call away from his or her desk) argues for even better integration between the phone and PC-based software. Of course, recent technological advances have made it possible for cell phone users to connect to and browse the Internet and, in some cases, to replicate many of the functions that a desktop PC Internet user is accustomed to having at his or her disposal.
Of course, the present stage of cell phone evolution did not come about over night. Rather there has been a continuous series of changes in cell phone features and capabilities as such phones evolved from the unwieldy bag phone of yesterday to today's modern compact phones that are not much larger than a candy bar. The trend toward smaller phone size, however, has been slowed somewhat by the decision to include features beyond basic telephony in many cell phones (e.g., cameras, PDA functionality, GPS mapping, etc.) and, similarly, by the perceived need to include ever increasing levels of multimedia functionality including both recordation and playback.
In addition, there has also been a similar trend toward increasing the amount of customization that users can apply to their phones and mobile devices. Early examples of user customization include after market cell phone case parts and bags. Today, however, the customization trend has taken a more technological turn and companies are increasingly allowing users to modify the cell phone operating system by, for example, selecting a background wallpaper for the LCD display, choosing a boot screen, assigning photo caller I.D.s, (using images that might be created by a cell phone digital camera), selecting custom ring tones, etc.
The different forms of phone customization can be broadly divided into two categories: a hardware customization approach and a software customization approach. The hardware customization approach, although still a viable part of the revenue streams for many cell phone manufacturers, does not appear to be drawing the level of consumer attention that it once did. On the other hand, customization through software has given rise to a whole new industry which is focused on providing application programs and digital content suitable for use on mobile devices. Numerous companies have been founded which entirely base their economic foundation on the provision of customized ringtones, system menus, and themes for mobile devices.
Of particular interest for purposes of the instant disclosure are the many programs and games that have been developed for users of mobile devices. In many cases, customers can choose remotely stored programs or games and then have those items delivered to their devices via the phone system.
In a typical scenario, a customer learns of a cell phone-based game or other program. He or she will then request that this program be transferred to his or her cell phone for execution there. However, unless care is taken it is possible that the purchased software program or game will not run on that user's device. One reason for this is that there are a very large number of phones with different capabilities on the market and a correspondingly large number of software developers. Although the Java™ application creation environment has emerged as a defacto programming standard, the manufacturer's implementation on each cell phone is potentially different. Thus a user is never really certain whether a piece of software will perform properly on his or her cell phone until it is actually installed.
A variety of different approaches to the problem of creating applications that run on multiple mobile communications devices have been utilized with varying degrees of success. As an example, there are software development environments that are designed to allow the professional programmer to create programs or games within an environment that allows the completion of the software program or game simultaneously onto mobile devices that support different application execution environments. All of these approaches however are directed to professional game/program creation for mobile devices, wherein the creation process in itself is still very complicated and too difficult for the ordinary user.
As a consequence, these various trends have tended to make it impossible for most users to create or modify in any significant way programs that execute on their mobile devises. This of course means that a user is, for all practical purposes, strictly limited to the program offerings provided by third parties and, further, limited to the choices provided for the user's mobile device. The possibility of a user creating cell phone-based programs and games is not an option for the average user since the steps and activities necessary to do this are only practicable for a person with sufficient knowledge in specific programming languages and who have the necessary software tools. Thus, whether or not a new program or game can be transferred onto a given user's mobile device is more or less externally determined. In addition the user typically has only a limited opportunity to customize programs or games and no ability to create them.
Thus what is needed is a method that makes it possible for a user of a modern cell phone or other mobile devices to create customized software programs or games, wherein the user can integrate his or her own multimedia data into the resulting application. Additionally the resulting program or game will preferably be created according to the specific technological requirements of the user's particular mobile device. Further and preferably, the method will be implemented on two platforms: a desktop (or laptop, etc.) computer and a mobile device. As is described in greater detail below, in a preferred embodiment the user will initiate the process of creating customized/personalized programs either on the computer or directly on the mobile device. Further, and preferably, the user will begin by selecting a program/game template and one or more multimedia files that he or she wants to integrate into the selected program. Finally, a method is needed that will allow the user to select a target mobile device and the method will automatically create the personalized game or program and subsequently transfer the game or program to the target mobile device.
Accordingly it should now be recognized, as was recognized by the present inventors, that there exists, and has existed for some time, a very real need for a system and method that would address and solve the above-described problems.
Before proceeding to a description of the present invention, however, it should be noted and remembered that the description of the invention which follows, together with the accompanying drawings, should not be construed as limiting the invention to the examples (or preferred embodiments) shown and described. This is so because those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains will be able to devise other forms of the invention within the ambit of the appended claims.